This invention relates to improved nicotine dispensing devices designed to reduce or eliminate the disadvantages associated with conventional smoking habits using combustible cigarettes. In the preferred embodiment of the nicotine dispensing device of this invention the device is configured in the shape and size of a conventional combustible cigarette. However, this feature is for aesthetics only and is not related to function. This invention further relates to a method for the production of the improved nicotine dispensing devices of this invention. The device of this invention represents an improvement over the simulated smoking device described and claimed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,284,089 which is incorporated herein by reference.
The use of nicotine has long been practiced by persons in many cultures, who derive satisfaction from the substance. Nicotine is a liquid alkaloid having the formula C.sub.5 H.sub.4 NC.sub.4 H.sub.7 NCH.sub.3 and which is toxic in humans above certain levels. When nicotine is obtained from tobacco, as by chewing, sniffing, or smoking the substance, the amount of nicotine absorbed into the body generally does not build up to a harmful dose, but produces a certain pleasurable effect, frequently leading to habitual use.
One of the most popular versions of nicotine use involves the smoking of cigarettes. When the tobacco in a conventional cigarette is ignited, the combustion of the processed tobacco within the cigarette causes the release of vaporous nicotine, which is drawn through the cigarette and into the user's mouth and lungs when the user sucks or inhales air through the cigarette.
The relative mildness of a cigarette, as compared to a pipe or cigar, permits a user to draw the smoke from the burning cigarette directly into the lungs. The nicotine vapors in the cigarette smoke are rapidly assimilated into the bloodstream of the user from the lungs, so that cigarette smoking provides a method by which a user may very quickly feel the effects of the nicotine. Preferably to the cigarette user, nicotine is absorbed by the lungs and therefore reaches physiologically significant levels in the bloodstream leading to the brain much more rapidly than if absorbed in the mouth (bucal mucosa) or other tissue.
Although nicotine can be readily introduced into the body through cigarette smoking, the combustion of tobacco, with the consequent elevated temperatures required in this process, unfortunately result in a number of undesirable consequences. Of primary concern are the serious health hazards known to result from smoking combustible cigarettes. Although the nicotine content of a cigarette is not believed to cause any serious adverse long term health effects on the human body, other components which are harmful are present in tobacco smoke. Some of these other constituents are known carcinogens. A table listing some of the harmful components in tobacco smoke may be found on pp. 496-501 of the publication Tobacco and Tobacco Smoke, Studies in Experimental Carcinogenesis, (1967) by Ernest L. Wynder and Dietrich Hoffman of the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research. The teaching of that publication is hereby incorporated by reference into this application.
Furthermore, the smoking of combustible cigarettes may pose a significant fire hazard. Many fires which have occurred both within buildings and in natural environments have been attributable to burning cigarettes which were carelessly discarded. In addition, substantial economic loss can be attributed to smoking, including significant damage to business and personal property resulting from burns in clothing, carpeting, furniture, etc. caused by stray ashes from cigarettes. Cigarette smoking has also become increasingly objectionable because of the discomfort it may cause to nonsmokers who are exposed to the smoke and odor produced by the smoking habit.
Because of these undesirable side effects of combustible cigarette smoking, attempts have been made from time to time to provide an acceptable substitute for combustible cigarette smoking which will eliminate or ameliorate the adverse consequences mentioned above. Tobacco concentrates, for example, have been processed into a tablet which may be sucked or chewed in the mouth of the user, the nicotine being absorbed into the user's body through the lining of the mouth. Such a tablet, does not provide the user with the feel of a cigarette between his or her lips. Furthermore, a tablet smoking substitute cannot provide the user with an opportunity to draw air and vapors into the mouth nor inhale that air and vapors into the lungs, which is an essential part of the conventional smoking habit. These activities constitute an important aspect of the psychological and physiological affinity which a smoker acquires for the nicotine habit. Without an effective substitute for such smoking activities, a tablet form of tobacco is likely not to satisfy the smoker and may thus result in a return to combustible cigarette smoking.
In another approach to providing a substitute for smoking, it has been recognized that processed tobacco, such as that contained in cigarettes, will release vapors even when it is heated to a temperature lower than the ignition point of the tobacco. Thus, a smoker might draw air through such heated tobacco and thereby obtain the vapors which are released in conventional smoking without also inhaling the noxious by-products of tobacco combustion. Devices manufactured according to the technique have sometimes used a second isolated portion of tobacco, which is ignited, as the source of heat. Although such a device is chambered so that the products of combustion are not directly inhaled by the user in the act of drawing air through such a device, the harmful by-products of combustion are nevertheless released into the air surrounding the user. Thus substantial amounts of the deleterious combustion by-products may nevertheless be inhaled by the user and surrounding persons through breathing the ambient air.
In addition, with such a substitute device, substantially the same fire hazards are presented as with conventional smoking devices, and there remains the potential for burn damage to carpets, furniture, clothing, etc. Alternatively, the tobacco in this method may be heated by various pyrophorous materials, which are mixed together with the tobacco. Such materials react with oxygen, alcohol, water, etc. and thereby produce sufficient heat to cause the tobacco to release vapors. With this technique, however, any by-products of the combustion reaction, which occurs within the tobacco mix, will also tend to be inhaled through the device by the user. Thus, there is the danger of adverse health consequences resulting whenever any of these by-products are toxic or otherwise harmful. Furthermore, the structure of such devices tend to be unduly complex, resulting in a relatively high manufacturing cost.
Various other smoking substitutes have been developed which include cigarette simulating devices containing various materials which approximate the taste and aroma of tobacco or release various other additional aromatic vapors which are intended to have a satisfying effect on the user when those vapors are inhaled. In one such device, synthetic materials simulating the taste and aroma of tobacco are micro-encapsulated within a cigarette substitute device. The desired vapors are released by squeezing or crushing the device, causing the capsules to burst and the vapors to be released into the air drawn through the device. In another such device, the flavor and taste components of tobacco are saturated within a capsule containing an absorbent material, and, when punctured, the capsule releases the aroma and flavor volatiles of tobacco into the air drawn through the device. These devices, however, have failed to take into account that the primary physiological phenomenon related to cigarette smoking, which must be provided in any effective substitute, is the sudden introduction of nicotine vapor into the user's lungs to satisfy the user's habit.
Thus, despite the various attempts which have been made to provide effective substitutes for combustible cigarettes, no one has developed a device which permits the user to inhale controlled amounts of nicotine vapor, free of all known or suspected carcinogens, sufficient to satisfy a nicotine habit without the need for combustion or other heating means and without the need for the user taking some unfamiliar action other than the actions performed in the conventional smoking habit, namely drawing or sucking a gaseous mixture through a cigarette and inhaling that gaseous mixture into the lungs of the user.
Therefore, a need has developed for a substitute for combustible cigarettes which will release nicotine vapor into the air drawn through the substitute device by a smoker without the need for any heating means or any action on the user's part other than drawing air through the cigarette as is done with a conventional cigarette.
To an extent the need defined above has been satisfied by a device described as a simulated smoking device and which is the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 4,284,069. The device of U.S. Pat. No. 4,284,069 suffers from serious deficiencies when actually produced and used in large quantities. In particular, the device, as described in the preferred embodiment, required an excessive amount of nicotine mixture in the nicotine containing member when the draw and delivery characteristics were adjusted to simulate those of a conventional cigarette. Also, the construction of the device, as described in the preferred embodiment, did not allow the use of currently available large scale manufacturing techniques and equipment.
Both of these deficiencies restricted the manufacturing of the device within competitive cost requirement, as related to the production costs of conventional cigarettes.
The improved device of this invention satisfies both of these disadvantages associated with the prior art device.